Isn’t anyone giving courses in ‘Teach Yourself Dignity’?
This was my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday.
What is it about all these middle-aged and even elderly men littering Maltese public life that renders them completely unable to behave with the barest modicum of dignity when faced with the stresses of rejection for posts which they wish to have, dismissal from posts they had, or removal from office to which they wish to cling?
I just cannot stand it anymore.
Faced with yet another one of them playing the victim in that horrid southern Mediterranean way, all over the newspapers (“pity me!”; “look at me!”) my reaction is to pack my towels and my books and my sunglasses and head for a nice beach club as far away as possible from whining, ill-bred individuals of a the-world-revolves-around-my-navel disposition.
Anywhere else, this kind of behaviour, especially when displayed by a man, would be reason for media pillorying, not media sympathy.
Something else is required from public figures and it’s called grace under pressure. Apparently, this is a novel and alien concept here in Malta, where – I have now discovered – it is considered perfectly normal for grown men in public life to sob and try to attract attention to and sympathy for their “hurt feelings” and their “wegghat”.
And the more attention and sympathy they attract, the better they feel. Can you imagine that?
Anywhere else in normal civilisation, the object would be to attract less attention, not more, to dampen any media interest and not fire it up.
Yes, once more I feel like Alice sucked down the rabbit-hole as I log onto the online newspapers and find that now we have another one: Joe Falzon, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority auditor whose contract is not being renewed because the functions of that office are being absorbed by that of the national Ombudsman.
On Friday he rushed to The Times to whine, scream and stamp his feet because he (quite obviously) does not like this at all, and because he wasn’t consulted first.
He also revealed, without first obtaining the Ombudsman’s permission for this wholesale indiscretion, the nature of a private conversation he had with him when the Ombudsman called him to his office for a meeting.
It looks like this is the new fashion and code of behaviour as the wrong sort of person is rocketed into public life and appalling manners become contagious.
There was the inevitable reaction. Yesterday, the Ombudsman, Joseph Said Pullicino, spoke to the newspapers himself to say how astonished he was at Joe Falzon’s behaviour (he’s not the only one).
“The discussion I had with Joe Falzon was in confidence and I expected it to remain so,” he told The Times. “I cannot divulge the contents of the discussion, but Mr Falzon knew his term and office had to finish at some point following Parliament’s decision to abolish the post of audit officer.”
Mr Falzon’s main complaint is that “nobody had the decency” to “inform him well in advance”. Let’s leave aside the nature of that complaint and ask ourselves this question: is it the sort of complaint that somebody who holds a position which warrants dignity and respect should be making in the newspapers?
The answer is no.
If he had any complaints to make, he should have made them behind a closed office door. That’s the way these things are done. But more properly, he should have said nothing at all. It would have been more appropriate.
The Ombudsman pointed this out himself when speaking to The Times. The government and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority could not inform Mr Falzon “well in advance” when his office was going to be shut down, because the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition did not agree on who should be the new commissioner, which meant – according to the laws and systems of the land – that the decision was taken out of their hands and fell to the Ombudsman.
Mr Falzon’s other complaint was that if he had known he had just a week left in the job, he would not have taken on any new cases. He also said he should have been given time to conclude the cases on which he was working.
But this is not how it works, is it? What an attitude.
Imagine if all the people in positions of responsibility, and even those not in positions of responsibility, effectively stopped performing normal business on the grounds that they only had a week left at work, so why bother.
The usual way is that you carry on as normal and then hand over to your successor during a thorough briefing. But these control-freaks just don’t understand that. Their identity is so very much tied into their role that removal from that role provokes, it seems, a major crisis.
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The decision on the Environment Commissioner is taken by the government in consultation with the Opposition.
If no agreement is reached, the Ombudsman gets to decide.
I personally believe that Mr. Falzon was a man of integrity. I state ‘was’, as he unfortunately screwed up on this latest development.
I believe that he should have addressed the problem behind closed doors with dialogue. I admit that he was a ‘constant thorn’ in MEPA . That, I have admired…..As individuals, the likes of Mr. Falzon and his integrity at the place of work, are few on this little rock.
Yet, he lost kudos with me as he should NOT have revealed the meeting and it’s contents with the Ombudsman to third parties. That’s a no no Mr. Falzon, and you know that.
The Ombudsman is precisely intended to ensure openness and transparency. He should know better than to try and do things under wraps.
[Daphne – He didn’t “do things under wraps”. He followed the rules, a concept that you Laburisti with your people’s kangaroo courts and your Chinese Cultural Revolution view of transparency and openness just fail to understand.]
Some men should really grow up and behave in a manner fit to their position. No public audit professional would ever seek situations of public controversy.
The MEPA auditor is behaving like a little child, and this is not a good reflection for his position and the work he is supposed to do.
With hindsight, it is a good thing that Mr. Falzon is not being appointed as Commissioner for the Environment.
But maybe if we use the logic of Joe Grima on Inkontri, where he built an argument about statements made by Norman Vella and guarantees to Xarabank, then maybe we too can build an argument and question whether Mr. Joe Falzon is throwing this hissy so that he would be given guarantees by Labour for a future cushy job.
Dear Daphne.
Would you be interested in writing about this subject?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120729/local/New-Maltese-road-signs-that-are-lost-in-translation.430509
Quite frankly I think that, as usual, in typical Maltese fashion, we have taken things to their extreme and the Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti (who are nothing but a bunch of time-wasters pining for the days when we carried clubs and slept in caves) are trying their utmost, yet again, to take our standards down a few notches!
Anyway, I would very much value your views on this, as I am sure would many of your readers.
@Mepito
Please, do not insult us with Joe Grima’s logic and ‘trasparenza’
I appreciate where you are going with your sensible remark, but Grima is the pits.
Joe Grima transparent?
Daphne, when women have their own little enclaves some of them behave the same way – vide Marlene and Marisa. I don’t think it’s a man thing at all.
You are on your own on this. MEPA and the Gov are already running for cover.
[Daphne – Martin, you are one of the most tiresome people I have had the misfortune to encounter through this website. You use prejudice and bitterness in place of argument and you are forever squatting here sniping. Do you know what you remind me of? One of those freaky boys who used to sit around glued to the sight of the girls they considered out of their league, bitching about them and calling them whores and so on, yet unable to pull themselves away and go and spend time with the girls they ‘respected’. You’ve got a bad case of that, in a different context. You’re Labour, you claim to despise me and my views, but still you hang around here and not with your Labour friends on your Labour sites. Now toddle off, do yourself a favour, and find some nice Labour lady to hang around and chat with. And if you’d like to stay, cut out the sniping tone and use proper arguments, or at least develop a sense of humour.]
You know the solution – disallow my comments.
[Daphne – No, I’d only do that if you were extremely obnoxious or slanderous. Your comments don’t bother me. I just find it interesting that life changes but life situations don’t: from the bitchy but fascinated boys hanging about on the Ghar id-Dud railings to the bitchy but fascinated men hanging around my website around 35 years on. Ho hum.]
But you won’t, cos this site would be pretty damn boring if you only allowed comments by the usual sycophants who wait breathlessly till you tell them what they should think and then trip over their little feet in their eagerness to be the first to say that it was what they had been thinking all along.
[Daphne – Quite obviously a category to which you long to belong, but feel yourself above it and too special, thinking I’ll notice you more if you’re nasty. Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now. Niga naqa u nqum.]
I am impervious to personal jibes and slurs – water off a freaky boy’s back, as you might say.
[Daphne – Yes, well, I imagine you’ve had a lifetime’s practice.]